[Marxism] Fwd: The socio-economic roots of Syria’s uprising | AlJumhuriya.net

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Following the Baath Party’s coup d’état in 1963, most of the 
developmental drive of the country focused on land reforms and state-led 
development. The Party, inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s agenda in 
Egypt, put the state economy under extreme pressure, since it aimed at 
providing free education, undertaking large industrial projects, and 
promoting state interventionism in the state economy without solving the 
issues of low productivity and high corruption, in addition to 
struggling to keep up with population growth. However, the 
neopatrimonial structure of the Syrian regime maintained corruption at 
high levels through the decades, and according to Transparency 
International data, Syria was ranked 127 out of 178 countries in the 
2010 Corruption Perceptions Index.


Gradually, Import-Substitution Industrialization (ISI)—that is, the 
replacement of foreign imports with domestic production—was abandoned in 
favour of market-driven liberalization. The withdrawal of the state from 
the economy happened in two major waves; the first in the early 1970s 
and the second in the mid-1980s. During the 1970s, agrarian reforms had 
been a key policy, but were later reversed into privatization of the 
land—a key feature of the rule of Assad fils. On the other hand, in the 
1980s—in an attempt to contain domestic discontent and to restart the 
economic engine of the country—Hafez al-Assad pushed a neoliberal 
opening to foreign capital and ‘liberated’ the economy from 
public-sector domination, while still maintaining an extensive 
bureaucratic apparatus. By the 1980s the bureaucratic and public sector 
alone employed approximately 20% of the total workforce of the country.



full: 
https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en/content/socio-economic-roots-syria%E2%80%99s-uprising

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[Marxism] Ireland - taking on the revisionists

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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One of the lines of attack of the irish 'historical revisionists' -
basically anti-republican propagandists masquerading as 'iconoclasic
historians - has been to present the IRA in West Cork during the war of
independence as Catholic sectarians who carried out 'ethnic cleansing'
against Protestants and who shot dead a bunch of Crown Forces personnel who
had already surrendered (the famous Kilmichael Ambush led by legendary IRA
figure Tom Barry.

This nonsense has been shot down by a number of other historians, including
local Cork historian Meda Ryan, who methodically took apart the arguments
of Prof Peter Hart over Kilmichael - Hart's 'evidence' including interviews
he did with people who were actually dead at the time he claimed he
interviewed them.

The Aubane Historical Society has been to the forefront of challenging the
historical revisionists and have just produced an excellent new pamphlet on
the latest controversy about West Cork, arising from a
revisionist-dominated West Cork History Festival.

https://theirishrevolution.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/the-first-west-cork-history-festival-and-west-corks-war-of-independence-sectarianism-the-kilmichael-ambush-tom-barry-and-peter-hart/
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[Marxism] Doug Rawlings/Vietnam Full Disclosure blog on Burns' opus

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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EPISODE NINE
A DISRESPECTFUL LOYALTY
MAY 1970 TO AUGUST 1973

We have reached the penultimate evening of what has become a ten round bout
pitting character against character in the story of America.  More than one
interviewee has called the American War in Vietnam a game-changer in
American history (one says that it drove a stake through the heart of this
country that we have not yet recovered from). At least Burns and Novick
have not relegated the story of the war’s impact on the Vietnamese people
to a side-bar issue, but, still, the film is becoming more and more “our
story.” Oftentimes it has come down to the flag-waving patriot vs the
anti-war activist.

This Hegelian model is put into play (thesis-antithesis-synthesis) but
without the satisfaction of a genuine resolution in sight.  No light at the
end of any tunnel here. And the preponderance of evidence as the jury of
American generations stirs on their couches is definitely leaning towards
the flag-waver’s narrative. Shots from drug-addled “hippies” frolicking at
Woodstock are immediately followed by shots of American soldiers suffering
in Vietnam. We know who is the sympathetic character here.  The work of the
SDS and the general student anti-war movement has been neatly packaged away
as frivolous youthful indulgence as the real men of America, the
construction workers, hammer street activists into silence. The voice of
rural America is captured by a singer/songwriter mom whose son was killed
in Vietnam telling an activist that his right to contest his government was
won with the blood of her son, and she does not deny him that right, but,
by God, if he comes near her door again, she’ll blow him away with her
God-given, second amendment pistol.

And the ubiquitous Karl Malantes recounts having his car assaulted as he is
leaving Travis Air Force base by sign-carrying neer-do-well’s. There is
even footage of long-haired placard-wielding women and men at the gates.  But
hold on here. This blatant attempt to advance a myth should not go
uncontested. Sure, the anti-war voices were there, but did anyone see them
assaulting anyone in uniform? Marlantes claims that this attack on him and
“his” men happened again and again. Not so, writes Jerry Lempke in his book
THE SPITTING IMAGE. As Bill Ehrhart has written elsewhere, we who returned
from war may have been ignored and even avoided, but we were not assailed.
Perhaps some veterans years after they returned home yearned for
ticker-tape parades, but most of the guys I knew just wanted to be
invisible and regain some semblance of their lives.  I am sure there were
isolated incidents of anti-war demonstrators losing their cool, but I,
personally, and every namvet that I know, claim the opposite.  In fact, we
were welcomed into the anti-war community. In August of 1970, I wore my
uniform from Fort Lewis in Washington state, where I processed out of the
army, to San Francisco airport by myself.  I was not even confronted by
anyone, let alone assaulted.  Pitied perhaps but not reviled.  And then
Judy, who met me in San Francisco, joined me, and we went down to Los
Angeles and ended up hitchhiking across the United States, on the road for
three weeks or so, down to Mexico and back up to Ohio.  Not once, not once,
did anyone upbraid me for my “service” in Vietnam.

And finally there is the excruciating portrayal of Jane Fonda as, first, a
soldier’s wet dream and then a wide-eyed naif traveling through North
Vietnam and exclaiming that American POW’s are war criminals and should be
executed. Phew. I can see why she has spent the rest of her life
apologizing for those remarks and regretting her callousness. The viewer is
left with the impression that the flag-wavers have every right to dismiss
her and her ilk as insensitive know-nothings.  Perhaps Burns and Novick’s
audience might not have been so ready to condemn her if they saw footage of
her and Donald Sutherland and a host of Hollywood types on their FTA tour
(Fuck The Army) being cheered on by soldiers weary of the war. She used her
fame to try and stop the war and to bring the troops home, so she should at
least receive some credit for that.

It is too bad that it has come down to this.  What could have been a
riveting history lesson, which the film mightily struggles to be, has
devolved into “us vs them.” Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr are rolling
in their graves, for a golden opportunity has been missed.  Both of these
legendary peace activists preached a basic lesson to the masses of their
followers — real peace activism cannot involve an attack on an individual
human being; rather, it is an attack on a system of oppression. Burns and

[Marxism] Scott Camil on the Ken Burns Vietnam Series

[Greg McDonald via Marxism]

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Although his name may not be very familiar on the national level, those of
us who have been active on the left in Gainesville, FL in years past will
have  invariably come in contact with Mr. Camil, Vietnam veteran, member of
VVAW and currently active in Vets for Peace. Scott Camil was one of the
Gainesville 8. because of his active opposition to the Vietnam war, the
Nixon administration put him on a hit list and targeted him to be
"neutralized". Subsequently he was shot in the back by undercover police.

Scott has written a series of reaction papers to each episode of the Ken
Burns series and put them upon his Facebook timeline.


Episode 1
PBS Vietnam broadcast: They said that the war began in good faith. They did
not make the case and the Pentagon Papers tell a different story. They
called it a brutal civil war and again did not make the case. When you are
fighting against your own citizens who are backing foreign troops that is
patriotism and protecting your home from foreign occupiers. They left out a
bunch about the Geneva Accords and all of the American violations of it.
They left out the part where the French and British released and armed
Japanese prisoners and went after the Viet Minh. No mention that the
900,000 Catholics who left the northern sector of Vietnam were responding
to the leaflets that we dropped all over the north saying that the
Communists would kill them. This first show had some good stuff, like why
did the US, a former colony, support colonization as opposed to supporting
those fighting for independence and self determination. They did not
explain the reasons. All in all, they are leaving out important history
that would show the US in a less positive light. There is no way to make
the American war against the Vietnamese a noble endeavor.

Scott Camil


I thought that tonights episode 2 did a better job with the history than
last night. I am attaching a paper that I wrote in 1995 on Robert S.
McNamara's book, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam.

When the news of McNamara’s book, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of
Vietnam, first became public, I was both elated and dismayed. I was elated
by the fact that one of the planners of the Vietnam War had finally
admitted that the war in Vietnam was “terribly wrong”. What dismayed me was
that I had to point to this man’s book to achieve “official” credibility
for something that everyone I know has known for a long time. I rushed
right out to get the book, and the first thing I did was read the chapter
dealing with the American-sponsored assassination of South Vietnamese
president Diem and the chapter dealing with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,
two issues which were key to our escalation in Vietnam and controversial. I
figured that I knew enough about these two issues to decide whether or not
I considered McNamara’s book to be honest.

McNamara’s dealing with the Diem assassination was what I had understood it
to be. Basically Diem refused to control his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu’s [head
of South Vietnamese security forces] repression of the Buddhist protesters.
The United States also suspected that Diem was trying to secretly work out
a deal with France that would reunify the country, so we decided to get rid
of him (I believe this is commonly known as murder). There was a coup and
Diem and his brother-in-law were murdered. The United States had a new
South Vietnamese President to order around.

Concerning the Tonkin Gulf incident, in August of 1964, Congress passed a
resolution known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which “was the closest
that the U.S. ever came to a declaration of war” (p. 127) against Vietnam.
President Johnson’s administration continually used the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution [which was passed unanimously in the House, and with only two
dissenting votes in the Senate, one from Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon and
one from Senator Ernest Gruening of Alaska] “to justify the
constitutionality of the military actions it took in Vietnam from 1965 on.”
The Johnson administration claimed that two American warships, the U.S.S.
Turner Joy and the U.S.S. Maddox, were attacked by North Vietnamese patrol
boats in international waters and that the attack was unprovoked. This is
one of the most controversial issues of our involvement in Vietnam.

I was hoping to find a smoking gun that would point to deception ordered by
the White House, because I am one of the people who believe that the U.S.
lied concerning where its ships actually were, what they were actually
doing, and whether or not they were really attacked. McNamara believes that
the attacks really did take place. McNamara’s book provides some of 

Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Milo’s “Free Speech Week” was a flop: Here’s how to beat the alt-right - Salon.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/29/17 5:34 PM, Jeffrey Masko wrote:
Yes, I know the problems with IGD, but I'm not hearing about this 
elsewhere in the media. I have heard from other locals about incidents 
that are being ignored for a number of reasons, mostly cops have some 
fucked solidarity with White Power because a lot of local cops don't 
come from the bay area and live far north of the city in Novato.


https://itsgoingdown.org/violent-assaults-harassment-follow-freespeechweek-disaster/



Maybe it's me but this doesn't sound anything like the Weimar Republic 
in 1930:



According to the person we spoke to who chose to remain anonymous, the 
altercation began when our subject, who we will refer to as “Frank,” was 
approached outside of Pappy’s BBQ on Telegraph. After being approached 
by a first individual, another, larger man came forward, and Frank 
commented on his “Celtic Cross” tattoo, a favorite among white 
supremacists. The man then pulled up his sleeve to reveal more tattoos, 
including an iron cross. A verbal argument began, with the larger man 
stating to his friend, “Don’t talk to this mother fucker, he’s antifa.” 
He then replied to Frank, a person of color, that his mother was a 
“nigger lover.” The man then got in Frank’s face, spitting on him, and 
placing his forehead against T’s.


The man then tried to kick Frank, and then proceeded to pick up his 
skateboard and threw it, screaming, “You faggot!” Frank then attempted 
to defend himself and run, however he says that “out of nowhere” he was 
tackled to the ground by Kyle Chapman. For the next 15-20 seconds, he 
claims that Chapman, who was wearing a large ring, beat and punched him 
in the face, shoulders, and body. Photos sent to IGD show cuts and 
bruises which corroborate these claims. After 15-20 seconds, Chapman 
friends told him that that was enough, and to stop the fight. Once 
Chapman had stopped the beating, Frank got on his feet and quickly left 
the scene.

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Re: [Marxism] Fwd: Milo’s “Free Speech Week” was a flop: Here’s how to beat the alt-right - Salon.com

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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Yes, I know the problems with IGD, but I'm not hearing about this elsewhere
in the media. I have heard from other locals about incidents that are being
ignored for a number of reasons, mostly cops have some fucked solidarity
with White Power because a lot of local cops don't come from the bay area
and live far north of the city in Novato.

https://itsgoingdown.org/violent-assaults-harassment-follow-freespeechweek-disaster/

On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 10:59 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> I don't care much for Amanda Marcotte but this is a good analysis.
>
> https://www.salon.com/2017/09/27/milos-free-speech-week-was-
> a-flop-heres-how-to-beat-the-alt-right/
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-- 

J.A. Masko
College of Communications
Penn State University
State College, Pa 16801

  "The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without
becoming disillusioned."

   Antonio Gramsci.
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[Marxism] Assad renews bombing hospitals

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/29/syria-renewed-bombing-of-hospitals-sparks-human-rights-protests?CMP=share_btn_tw
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Re: [Marxism] The Nation Magazine on Reconstruction, May 19, 1870

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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The typical hyper-sensitive, Proyect arrogance!  I wasn't questioning your
right to post what and when - I respect and honor you for creating this
invaluable list and keeping it going for so long. I just innocently
wondered why this post today. Thanks for the answer.


On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 1:35 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> On 9/29/17 1:30 PM, Dennis Brasky wrote:
>
>> You have made many of us aware of this sordid history in The Nation's
>> past. I don't see the point that you were attempting to make by posting it
>> now.
>>
>
> I post what I want, when I want. I created this mailing list 19 years ago
> and you will have to put up with my idiosyncrasies.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
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[Marxism] Fwd: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on the Ulster-Scots | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Reading Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz’s new book “An Indigenous People’s History 
of the United States” for a CounterPunch review, I came across this 
extraordinary passage that deals with the Scotch-Irish, who can more 
properly be described as Ulster-Scots. They were the Scots that the 
British used to colonize Ireland—the ancestors of those who marched 
under the Orange flags during “the troubles”. In the same way that they 
were the shock troops for colonizing Ireland, they helped to dispossess 
the American Indian. When I first got wind of Roxanne’s book, I 
mistakenly referred to it as a history of indigenous peoples. She 
corrected me on the spot—it was instead a history of the USA from the 
perspective of those who were living here and doing quite nicely at the 
time. It is a sorely needed complement to Howard Zinn’s history and one 
that deserves to be on everybody’s collection of essential radical 
histories of this misbegotten settler state.


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2017/09/29/roxanne-dunbar-ortiz-on-the-ulster-scots/

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[Marxism] Fwd: Milo’s “Free Speech Week” was a flop: Here’s how to beat the alt-right - Salon.com

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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I don't care much for Amanda Marcotte but this is a good analysis.

https://www.salon.com/2017/09/27/milos-free-speech-week-was-a-flop-heres-how-to-beat-the-alt-right/
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Re: [Marxism] The Nation Magazine on Reconstruction, May 19, 1870

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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On 9/29/17 1:30 PM, Dennis Brasky wrote:
You have made many of us aware of this sordid history in The Nation's 
past. I don't see the point that you were attempting to make by posting 
it now.


I post what I want, when I want. I created this mailing list 19 years 
ago and you will have to put up with my idiosyncrasies.


Thank you very much.
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Re: [Marxism] The Nation Magazine on Reconstruction, May 19, 1870

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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You have made many of us aware of this sordid history in The Nation's past.
I don't see the point that you were attempting to make by posting it now.





On Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 1:25 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> We have spoken several times in these columns of the grossness of the
> disorders in which the government of several States is plunged in the hands
> of the negroes and carpet-baggers, gathering our opinions simply from
> newspaper articles and correspondence and occasional private advices. Very
> recently, business men of the highest character, both from this city and
> from Boston, have been examining the state of things there with reference
> to investments both for themselves and their friends, and, of course, one
> of the very first things to which their attention was turned was the
> government, for govern ment means taxation, and on the manner and amount
> and application of taxation depend the rate of profits, the prospects of
> immigration, and the probability of internal improvements. No man will
> willingly invest much capital in a State whose revenues he has reason to
> believe will be squandered, or credit destroyed, or whose legislation
> cannot be depended on for a reasonable degree of uniformity and honesty.
> Now the reports of these gentlemen—and the two we have in our eye have been
> ardent Republicans and supporters of the Reconstruction policy of Congress,
> and do not believe any other policy was possible or desirable—describe
> things as being nearly as bad as bad can be. The effect on the freedman of
> the spectacle of large bodies of his fellows in a state of the grossest
> ignorance put suddenly in possession of the government of great, civilized,
> and wealthy communities, is of course as demoralizing as the sudden
> discovery of a parcel of diamonds, and just as likely to turn his mind away
> from steady industry, and to destroy his faith in the political value of
> knowledge. But this is not the worst of it. Their management of the State
> funds has been such, and is such, as to endanger American credit
> everywhere, to frighten away capital, and make general bankruptcy at some
> not very distant day by no means improbable. Moreover, no society was ever
> long subjected to such a regime without suffering in its very vitals,
> without finding the stock of honor, truth, decency, and patriotism on which
> it has to draw every now and then, to carry it through exciting. times,
> greatly and perhaps fatally diminished.
>
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[Marxism] The Nation Magazine on Reconstruction, May 19, 1870

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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We have spoken several times in these columns of the grossness of the 
disorders in which the government of several States is plunged in the 
hands of the negroes and carpet-baggers, gathering our opinions simply 
from newspaper articles and correspondence and occasional private 
advices. Very recently, business men of the highest character, both from 
this city and from Boston, have been examining the state of things there 
with reference to investments both for themselves and their friends, 
and, of course, one of the very first things to which their attention 
was turned was the government, for govern ment means taxation, and on 
the manner and amount and application of taxation depend the rate of 
profits, the prospects of immigration, and the probability of internal 
improvements. No man will willingly invest much capital in a State whose 
revenues he has reason to believe will be squandered, or credit 
destroyed, or whose legislation cannot be depended on for a reasonable 
degree of uniformity and honesty. Now the reports of these gentlemen—and 
the two we have in our eye have been ardent Republicans and supporters 
of the Reconstruction policy of Congress, and do not believe any other 
policy was possible or desirable—describe things as being nearly as bad 
as bad can be. The effect on the freedman of the spectacle of large 
bodies of his fellows in a state of the grossest ignorance put suddenly 
in possession of the government of great, civilized, and wealthy 
communities, is of course as demoralizing as the sudden discovery of a 
parcel of diamonds, and just as likely to turn his mind away from steady 
industry, and to destroy his faith in the political value of knowledge. 
But this is not the worst of it. Their management of the State funds has 
been such, and is such, as to endanger American credit everywhere, to 
frighten away capital, and make general bankruptcy at some not very 
distant day by no means improbable. Moreover, no society was ever long 
subjected to such a regime without suffering in its very vitals, without 
finding the stock of honor, truth, decency, and patriotism on which it 
has to draw every now and then, to carry it through exciting. times, 
greatly and perhaps fatally diminished.


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[Marxism] [UCE] Re: Fwd: The Ken Burns Vietnam War Documentary Glosses Over Devastating Civilian Toll

[Ralph Johansen via Marxism]

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I sent this last night, it's marked 'sent' in  my file bit didn't get 
there. Trying again.


IF Stone's 'The Hidden History of the Korean War 1950-51' (1952) is 
online at


https://www.docdroid.net/dz6t/the-hidden-history-of-the-korean-war-1950-1951-a-nonconformist-history-of-our-times-i-f-stone.pdf#page=6 




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[Marxism] Fwd: The best documentary on the Vietnam war | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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It was not funded by the Koch brothers and can now be seen for free.

https://louisproyect.org/2017/09/29/the-best-documentary-on-the-vietnam-war/
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[Marxism] Zohra Drif’s memoir of Algeria’s fight for freedom is stunning

[Dennis Brasky via Marxism]

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http://mondoweiss.net/2017/09/algerias-freedom-stunning/

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Re: [Marxism] Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

[Jon Flanders via Marxism]

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On 09/29/2017 08:47 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:



(I take anything written about Cuba in the NY Times with a grain of 
salt but still find this disturbing. With the growing dynamic toward 
market solutions in Cuba, is it any surprise that some of its citizens 
would want to exploit their labor power as a free market commodity?)


NY Times, Sept. 29 2017
Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO 


If you google Cuban Doctors you will find lots of articles like this. 
It's a real phenomenon and reflects tensions in Cuba that do exist. The 
Cuban government doubled health workers salaries in response to the 
disparity of pay between them and those working in the tourist industry. 
I certainly saw plenty of hustling going on with tourism in Cuba while I 
was there.
But I think the NYT runs this article now because the issue of Cuban aid 
to Puerto Rico is staring them in the face. Puerto Rican's will be 
asking why Haiti got Cuban medical help and they don't. Not to mention 
asking why they can't have Venezuelan oil that has been offered.


Jon Flanders

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[Marxism] Fwd: War for the Planet of the Apes | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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One of the primary imperatives of the Hollywood film industry is to make 
money, just is it would be for laxative or automobile manufacturers. 
Unlike the lonely art of literature that only requires a computer or 
typewriter to get started (or even a pen or pencil for the Luddites 
among us), film-making is an expensive proposition. The average budget 
for an independent film is $750,000, something that is beyond the means 
of most aspiring filmmakers. For the big production companies that will 
spend $80 million for a film like “American Made” that opens today, the 
emphasis is on hiring “bankable” stars like Tom Cruise who plays the 
drug dealer and Oliver North operative Barry Seal. That $80 million was 
almost as much as Congress voted for Nicaraguan contra funding in the 
year that Seal was involved in a sting operation against the Sandinistas.


Once you have the bankable star, you need to consult with the studio’s 
top financial geniuses who likely will recommend bankable genres that 
are geared to the youth market that will see a film multiple times and 
that consumes large boxes of popcorn given its youthful appetites. Just 
yesterday, when I went to see the film that is the subject of this 
review at a Manhattan AMC Cineplex, I decided to pick up a small box of 
popcorn even though I knew it was be deluged with salt—a means of luring 
me back to the concession stand to slake my thirst. When the 
concessionaire told me that it would cost $8.37, I decided against the 
purchase since the raw materials only cost AMC ten cents.


The youth market is drawn to two kinds of films like moths to a flame. 
The first are those that are based on Marvel comic books and others in 
this vein. The second are sequels to a successful film largely based on 
the Marvel comic book or videogame sensibility such as Transformers or 
Mortal Kombat. Closely related to this genre are remakes of classic 
films such as Star Wars or The Magnificent Seven that are generally 
inferior to the original.


Ostensibly a remake product of the bookkeeping mentality, the film I saw 
yesterday was the third in a recent series of Planet of the Apes films. 
Since I had not seen a single Hollywood film this year, I realized that 
I would look like an interloper at the December NYFCO awards meeting 
unless I came up with a few plausible nominations. Unlike my colleagues, 
most of whom are trying to make a living as reviewer, I am under no 
obligation to see something like Transformers. In fact, when I received 
a pass years ago to see films being shown at AMC theaters after becoming 
a member of NYFCO, I almost never used it.


Despite having all the earmarks of Hollywood commercialism, “The War for 
the Planet of the Apes” is a singular instance of art trumping commerce.


full: https://louisproyect.org/2017/09/29/war-for-the-planet-of-the-apes/
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[Marxism] Fwd: The problem is fascists, not those who stand up to them « Systemic Disorder

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Fighting back needn’t be physical, and generally does not need to be if 
there are sufficient counter-forces. I’ll draw here on two examples from 
late 1990s in New York City.


In the first example, a small band of neo-Nazis were running loose on 
Staten Island, the city’s right-wing outpost situated at a distance from 
the rest of the city. There were five of them, apparently inspired by a 
truly loathsome “novel” called The Turner Diaries, which features scenes 
of vast groups of people hung by Nazis during a race war. (To give you 
an idea of the demographics there, Donald Trump won Staten Island even 
though he received only 18 percent of the overall New York City 
presidential vote.)


A small group that I was then a member in, New York Workers Against 
Fascism, organized a coalition to confront the neo-Nazis. It was quickly 
decided to organize a series of peaceful demonstrations on the belief 
that a violent response would only alienate the community we were 
attempting to rally against the neo-Nazis. At one rally, in a park, the 
neo-Nazis actually showed up in uniform, across a busy street, and 
started giving Hitler salutes while shouting “white power.” They were 
simultaneously pathetic and representative of a potentially highly 
dangerous trend. In this instance, we had to hold back a group of 
anarchists from Love and Rage who wanted to charge, one of whom angrily 
told me “I came here to smash fascists.” I answered that today we were 
going to smash them peacefully. Conceding to the coalition’s consensus, 
he didn’t charge although he remained angry. Tactics had to be a serious 
consideration here.



full: 
https://systemicdisorder.wordpress.com/2017/09/13/stand-up-to-fascists/

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[Marxism] Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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(I take anything written about Cuba in the NY Times with a grain of salt 
but still find this disturbing. With the growing dynamic toward market 
solutions in Cuba, is it any surprise that some of its citizens would 
want to exploit their labor power as a free market commodity?)


NY Times, Sept. 29 2017
Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’
By ERNESTO LONDOÑO

RIO DE JANEIRO — In a rare act of collective defiance, scores of Cuban 
doctors working overseas to make money for their families and their 
country are suing to break ranks with the Cuban government, demanding to 
be released from what one judge called a “form of slave labor.”


Thousands of Cuban doctors work abroad under contracts with the Cuban 
authorities. Countries like Brazil pay the island’s Communist government 
millions of dollars every month to provide the medical services, 
effectively making the doctors Cuba’s most valuable export.


But the doctors get a small cut of that money, and a growing number of 
them in Brazil have begun to rebel. In the last year, at least 150 Cuban 
doctors have filed lawsuits in Brazilian courts to challenge the 
arrangement, demanding to be treated as independent contractors who earn 
full salaries, not agents of the Cuban state.


“When you leave Cuba for the first time, you discover many things that 
you had been blind to,” said Yaili Jiménez Gutierrez, one of the doctors 
who filed suit. “There comes a time when you get tired of being a slave.”


Cuban artists and athletes have defected during overseas trips for 
decades, most of them winding up in the United States. But the lawsuits 
in Brazil represent an unusual rebellion that takes aim at one of Cuba’s 
signature efforts. Sending doctors overseas is not only a way for Cuba 
to earn much-needed income, but it also helps promote the nation’s image 
as a medical powerhouse that routinely comes to the world’s aid.


The legal challenges are all the more important because the doctors have 
lost a common backup plan: going to the United States. The American 
government, which has long tried to undermine Cuba’s leaders, 
established a program in 2006 to welcome Cuban doctors, with the aim of 
exacerbating the island’s brain drain.


But in one of his final attempts to normalize relations with Cuba, 
President Barack Obama in January ended the program, which had allowed 
Cuban doctors stationed in other countries to get permanent residency 
visas for the United States.


“The end of the program was a huge blow to us,” said Maireilys Álvarez 
Rodríguez, another of the doctors who sued in Brazil. “That was our way 
out.”


The end of the visa program means that the future of these doctors now 
rests in the hands of the Brazilian courts. They have mostly ruled 
against the doctors, but some judges have sided with them, allowing the 
doctors to work on their own and get paid directly.


The doctors’ defiance puts them at risk of serious repercussions by the 
Cuban government, including being barred from the island and their 
families for years.


The seeds of the rebellion were planted a year ago in a conversation 
between a Cuban doctor and a clergyman in a remote village in 
northeastern Brazil.


Anis Deli Grana de Carvalho, a doctor from Cuba, was coming to the end 
of her three-year medical assignment. But having married a Brazilian 
man, she wanted to stay and keep working.


The pastor was outraged to learn that, under the terms of their 
employment, Cuban doctors earn only about a quarter of the amount the 
Brazilian government pays Cuba for their services.


He quickly put her in touch with a lawyer in Brasília, the Brazilian 
capital. In late September of last year, she sued in federal court to 
work as an independent contractor.


Within weeks, scores of other Cuban doctors followed Dr. Grana’s lead 
and filed suits in Brazilian courts. The Brazilian government, which 
struck the deal with Cuba in 2013 to provide doctors in underserved 
parts of the country, is appealing the cases that doctors have won and 
thinks it will prevail.


“There is no injustice,” said Brazil’s health minister, Ricardo Barros. 
“When they signed up they agreed to the terms.”


Dr. Álvarez said that the stipend offered by the Cuban government to 
work for a few years in Brazil seemed appealing to her and her husband, 
Arnulfo Castanet Batista, also a doctor, when they signed up in 2013.


It meant leaving behind their two children in the care of relatives, but 
each of them would earn 2,900 Brazilian reais a month — then worth about 
$1,400, and now worth $908 — an amount that seemed enormous compared 
with the roughly $30 a month Cuban 

[Marxism] Fwd: Chelsea Manning Inspired West Point Grad | The Daily Caller

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was sentenced to prison for leaking 
classified documents and subsequently freed by President Barack Obama, 
inspired West Point graduate and communist Spenser Rapone to infiltrate 
the military.


Rapone has come under fire and become the subject of an Army 
investigation after reports emerged of his open and unabashed support 
for communism and tweets he made calling for political violence and 
referring to Secretary of Defense James Mattis as an “evil, vile f***.”


http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/27/chelsea-manning-inspired-communist-west-point-graduate-to-infiltrate-the-military/
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[Marxism] Fwd: Germany and the Rise of a ‘Fascist International’

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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A key connection between AfD and Trump, the UK Independence Party, and 
right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is their ad man, 
Vincent Harris. He’s responsible for the bikini and tire tracks ad 
campaigns. He’s adept at fusing anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, and 
race-baiting messages. But with one of his suggestions for the AfD, 
Harris went too far. The party rejected his suggestion of “Germany for 
Germans” as a campaign slogan. Perhaps it will resurface in the next 
election, if the so-called moderates abandon the party.


Finally, what would a modern election be without Russian interference?

In the lead-up to the election, several major newspapers noted that 
Russian involvement in the German vote was scant. Perhaps they spoke too 
soon. First to consider are the Russian speakers, those with German 
heritage who’ve relocated to Germany since the 1980s — the right kind of 
immigrants from AfD’s point of view. The AfD estimates that fully 
one-third of its support comes from this constituency, and it has helped 
the party become the second most popular one in former East Germany.


Then there was the obligatory visit to Moscow, as Petry made her 
pilgrimage last February and met with, among others, the truly 
beyond-the-pale politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky. As the election entered 
its last phase, the usual trolls and Twitter bots came out to play, at 
least some of them Russians supporting AfD.


Again, as with Trump, the Kremlin isn’t interested in promoting a 
particular party in the hopes that it will win or reorient the country’s 
foreign policy. It simply wants to shake up a status quo that it 
perceives as tilted against Russia.



full: http://fpif.org/germany-and-the-rise-of-a-fascist-international/
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[Marxism] Fwd: We should have seen Trump coming | Ta-Nehisi Coates | News | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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From a new book by Coates that tells about his intellectual journey 
away from liberalism (or so it would seem).


https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/sep/29/we-should-have-seen-trump-coming
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[Marxism] Fwd: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars | US news | The Guardian

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/28/adjunct-professors-homeless-sex-work-academia-poverty
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[Marxism] Fwd: Why We Need Stuart Hall’s Imaginative Left | New Republic

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://newrepublic.com/article/145042/need-stuart-halls-imaginative-left
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[Marxism] Fwd: Elon Musk Unveils Ambitious Plan To Build A City On Mars | HuffPost

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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This guy is insane.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elon-musk-mars-plan_us_59cdcee0e4b09538b5075502
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[Marxism] [UCE] Re: Fwd: The Ken Burns Vietnam War Documentary Glosses Over Devastating Civilian Toll

[Ralph Johansen via Marxism]

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Louis Proyect wrote

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/28/the-ken-burns-vietnam-war-documentary-glosses-over-devastating-civilian-toll/ 




The same happened in North Korea, conceivably far worse. North Korea is 
now being threatened again with unimaginably greater destruction.  And 
North Korea's history during the bombing and invasion is a story that 
achingly needs telling to a totally callous world in a time of growing 
tension over their development of nuclear weapons, in the way that Nick 
Turse briefly lays out in this article about Vietnam.


In 1975 I was in Tanzania. This was the headquarters for a number of the 
continent's liberation struggles. That atmosphere was contagious. I had 
read IF Stone's book on Korea, I had read about "juche," or self 
reliance, the name for the regime's official ideology, I had no reason 
to believe US sources about what was taking place in this isolated, 
besieged country, and I went to the North Korean embassy to get the 
collected works of Kim Il Sung, which I had heard had been made 
available in English for Africans. I was met by a young Korean woman 
outside the embassy, who spoke no English. She was in tears and 
overwhelmed, trying in every way she could to convey to this American, 
at least one of us, what my country had done to her country, and I 
listened with respect and concern, but the language barrier and any 
expression in either direction was very difficult. She did give me the 
collection, and since i was traveling over land in my several years 
odyssey across the world, making it impossible to take the collection 
with me, I left the works with African friends. Now of course I wish 
that I had kept it, given its historical relevance, and its invaluable 
perspective from the other side concerning a system that has somehow 
perdured despite unfathomable odds for almost 70 years, amid all the 
distorted information we've being fed.



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